to any bands of the past, but the folks at Rims on the River have snagged a great one for this year’s festivities.

Soulful, sultry and beautifully ragged, the excellent rock band The Detroit Cobras perform Saturday April 20 at Riverfront Park. The show begins at 5:30 p.m. and features three very fine additional local acts – The Phantom Playboys, The Madd Hatters and Andrew Kane & The Alibis.

The brainchild of singer Rachel Nagy and guitarist Mary Ramirez, the five-member The Detroit Cobras play garage rock thick with murky old school simplicity or Phil Spector-esque aesthetics – soulful harmonies that echo 1950’s 45 records with a blistering temperament, found notably on the band’s 2001 cover song release “Life, Love & Leaving” which featured a heap of Motown soul and jukebox era rock and roll.

Their sound can be found in modern bands like Tiger! Tiger!, The Hives, Last Year’s Men or The Dum Dum Girls. But The Detroit Cobras has carried an underground torch since the late ’90s, offering a rough-hewn, lost in the city, brokenhearted vibe that’s never over-produced. Nagy, like The Heartless Bastard’s Erika Wennerstrom, has a voice that’s fierce and beautiful.

It’s great rock and roll and even better, it’s a free show.

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About This Blog

The WAE: Wilmington-area Arts & Entertainment is dedicated to experiencing, discussing and promoting the arts in Southeastern N.C. From theater and all manner of music to visual art, dance, festivals and more, The WAE is populated by people who are immersed in local A&E. If it’s about A&E in Southeastern N.C., then we’re all about it.